Spectres d’ombre develops breath as a fluctuating physical material, moving between human respiration, instrumental air, microtonal vibration and noise. Open strings, natural harmonics and specifically tuned strings generate friction and beating phenomena, creating unstable spectral combinations in which breath, timbre and resonance continually transform one another.

Across four movements, the work explores a poetics of what precedes and what follows sound: breath and gesture on one side, vibration, resonance, air and silence on the other. The writing is also choreographic. Doubled actions, friction, percussion and gestures involving the bodies of the instruments create a counterpoint in which visual and sonic events remain inseparable.

Toward the end, instrumental breath gradually becomes human respiration. Voices and instruments merge in a circulating dialogue before sound withdraws completely. The performers remain motionless, then slowly turn their gaze toward the audience, allowing gesture and silence to prolong the work beyond its audible disappearance.